Lucas has also said that
chivalry,
knighthood,
paladinism and related institutions in
feudal societies inspired some concepts in the Star Wars movies, most notably the
Jedi Knights. The work of the mythologist
Joseph Campbell, especially his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, directly influenced Lucas,[5] and is what drove him to create the "modern myth" of Star Wars. The natural flow of energy known as
the Force is believed to have originated from the concept of qi/chi/ki, "the all-pervading vital energy of the universe".
E.E. 'Doc' Smith's writings contain elements central to the Star Wars universe.[9] These elements include:
Spherical, moon-sized spaceships.
Smaller, spherical, jet-less fighters with accumulators for beamed power.
Spacehounds of IPC includes light swords of slicing "blade of flame" and "planes of force" wielded by spherical ships, also attested in melee combat.
Smith's
Lensmen have the telepathic powers of the Jedi derived from crystalline lenses mirroring
Kyber crystals in Star Wars.
In Triplanetary, a "tractor beam" from an artificial planetoid captures another vessel and a damsel in distress adventure ensues.
Space armor with a general focus on melee combat using space axes.
Norlaminian worship of "the all-controlling Force" along with general use of "force" powers throughout.
A Golden Meteor is the emblem and insignia of the galactic protectors.
A galactic trade in drugs which are used as currency: Thionite in Smith, Spice in Star Wars.
A galactic corps of heroes with telepathic powers. (Note: Lensman was written 10 years before the Silver Age edition of
Green Lantern)
Benevolent guardians seeking to fight evil. (Called Arisians in Lensman; Aquillian in the second draft script for Star Wars.)
A dark, unseen enemy seeking galactic domination. (Called Boskone in Lensman; Bogan in the second draft script for Star Wars.)
Special powers running down through family lines, with twins playing a significant role.
Epic space battles involving fleets of ships.
Large-scale weapons including a free-roaming planet-sized fortress[10] and the sunbeam[11] (capable of focusing the sun's rays, similar to Starkiller Base in The Force Awakens).
Jettisoning a space lifeboat with a data spool containing secrets of the enemy's ultimate weapon, the 'Grand Base'.[12]
Training with a helmet with a blast shield, yet able to 'see' due to special powers.[12]
Numerous uses of the word coruscant, a term which had declined in use after the 19th century.[13]
The science fiction writer
Isaac Asimov stated on several occasions that George Lucas's galaxy-wide
Empire bore a close resemblance to the galaxy depicted in Asimov's
Foundation Series. The greatest differences are that Asimov's Galaxy contains almost no robots and no non-human aliens. Asimov addressed both issues directly in the saga's later volumes, most notably Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Earth. Since Asimov's death in 1992, the Star Wars cinematic universe has gained new Asimovesque elements: The Phantom Menace introduced the planet
Coruscant, which bears a close resemblance to Asimov's
Trantor.[citation needed]
Star Wars borrows significantly from
Arthurian mythology; especially with respect to plot and main character development. The life and character development of
Luke Skywalker resembles that of the legendary
King Arthur. Both are orphans who later become heroes in their early adulthood. Both also have mentors who are much older and provide them with guidance and/or training. Arthur was mentored by
Merlin; whereas Luke was mentored and trained by
Obi-Wan Kenobi prior to continuing his training and mentorship with
Yoda.[15][16][17] The role of
Anakin Skywalker as the father of the hero, Luke Skywalker, mirrors that of
Uther Pendragon who is King Arthur's father.
Qui Gon-Jinn, Master Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi's roles match that of Merlin during the era of Anakin Skywalker and Uther Pendragon respectively.[18]
Star Wars shares many similarities with
Frank Herbert's Dune,[19] including the
desert planet setting with a moisture-based economy, spice smugglers, obese interstellar antagonists, and a mystical
mind control-using sect with great influence over galactic politics — Herbert himself once enumerated 37 similarities.[20] The influence was even more distinct in early Star Wars versions, with Princess Leia guarding a shipment of "aura spice" instead of the Death Star plans. The script for Jodorowsky's Dune was circulating in Hollywood at the time of Lucas' early work on Star Wars.[21][22][23] The director of the
2021 movie adaptation of Dune,
Denis Villeneuve, said the new movie would attempt to be Star Wars for adults.[24]
Pulp heroes and comics
Buck Rogers, another hero from pulp magazines from 1920s, and late comic strips (1929–67) and later a
1939 film serial and a 1950–51 TV series. Star Wars also influenced from its
tropes.[5]
Flash Gordon is the pulp hero whose original property which George Lucas had sought to license before making the first Star Wars film, A New Hope; the film includes many elements derived from the 1936 Universal serial Flash Gordon and its sequel, Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe. The basic plot involving the infiltration of a megalomaniacal outer-space Emperor's fortress by two heroes disguised in uniforms of soldiers of his army is drawn from Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe, with Luke Skywalker and Han Solo filling the roles of
Flash Gordon and
Prince Barin, respectively, and
Ming the Merciless the Emperor. The Emperor's deadly, hostile planet (the
Death Star/
Mongo), a sometimes scantily-clad brunette space Princess whom the hero defends (
Princess Leia/
Princess Aura), a big, strong, hairy, animal-like ally (
Chewbacca/
Prince Thun of the Lion Men), a fearsome monster found underground and/or fought in an arena by the hero (the Rancor/the Gocko or Orangopoid), a city in the sky ruled by someone who originally works with the villains but later joins the heroes (
Lando Calrissian of Cloud City), ray-guns, and dogfighting spaceships were all elements retained from the first Universal Flash Gordon serial. The opening text crawl of Star Wars is in the same style as the text openings of each chapter of the Flash Gordon Conquers The Universe serial.[citation needed] [From the 1940 series, not 1936, and the opening crawl is from the movie
Les Disparus de Saint-Agil].
DC Comics and
Jack Kirby. There has been a long debate among fans about the influence that
comic book writer
Jack Kirby had on the original Star Wars trilogy.[25] Kirby's time at
DC Comics between
1971 and 1975 was defined by his creation of the
New Gods saga. This
intergalactic story involved the New God,
Orion of the planet
New Genesis, being prophesied by the
Source as the warrior to defeat
Darkseid - the tyrannical ruler of the planet
Apokolips, and, by doing so, bring peace to the universe and end the conflict between the two planets. Unknown to Orion was that he was the son of the evil Darkseid. Parallels can thus be drawn between the nature of the relationships between Orion and Darkseid to Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, as well as between the mythical Source and
the Force. According to some accounts, Lucas met comic book writer and editor
Roy Thomas at a dinner in 1972, during which Lucas described the plot of Star Wars, to which Thomas noticed the similarity between this and Kirby's New Gods, which was then already a published series. John Williams who made the iconic Star Wars soundtracks since 1977, also did the soundtrack for the first Superman movie in 1978.[26]
Marvel Comics: Lucas original trilogy co-writer
Lawrence Kasdan noted that the spin-offs were expanding the franchise into more of a
shared universe. Far beyond the previously linear saga, adding that one of the strengths of the franchise was how it all fell under the same continuity in comparison to other franchises. Kasdan also contrasted Star Wars to the
Marvel Cinematic Universe, noting that Star Wars features less
comedy than the latter, and adding that he felt a more comedic approach like Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy would "not be Star Wars" to him.[27][28]
Jon Favreau stated that he took what he learned from doing the Marvel adjacent Iron Man movies into doing The Mandalorian and Boba Fett in the Star Wars franchise, all these characters rely on metallic, high-tech armors that can fly and fire weapons.[29]
J. R. R. Tolkien's 1937 The Hobbit and 1954–55 The Lord of the Rings novels inspired George Lucas's creation of Star Wars in 1977. An early draft for the 1977 Star Wars film is said to have included an exchange of dialogue between
Obi-Wan Kenobi and
Luke Skywalker taken directly from the conversation between Gandalf and Bilbo in Chapter 1 of The Hobbit, where Gandalf/Kenobi says "Good morning!" and Bilbo/Luke replies asking whether he means he's having a good morning, or is wishing him one, or that all mornings are good. Gandalf/Kenobi answers "All of them at once".[30][31][32] The plagiarised dialogue was dropped, but the monk-like Kenobi was modelled on Gandalf; the film author Chris Taylor identifies several further elements of Star Wars that in his view could have been modelled on Middle-earth.[30]
While doing a Star Wars animated series,
Dave Filoni noted that Peter Jackson visited him and his mentor George Lucas to discuss Tolkien's works and to ask for advice. According to the Star Wars website, Darth Vader is compared by Filoni to the Balrog rather than Sauron, and the
Prancing Pony bar may have inspired the
Mos Eisley cantina, with the introduction of Han Solo suggestively matching that of Strider (Aragorn). As for the prequel trilogy, it notes that Saruman influenced Count Dooku (both are portrayed by
Christopher Lee in the respective movies), and volcanic Mordor, whether Tolkien's or Jackson's, influenced the volcanic planet Mustafar.[32][33]
George R. R. Martin acknowledged Tolkien influenced his Game of Thrones TV series and novels about medieval fantasy, while speaking about a movie about Tolkien's life.[34][35] Jon Favreau mentioned Game of Thrones as an influence on The Mandalorian's second season.[36] George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire / Game of Thrones (1996 – present) has been compared to Star Wars. This is most commonly through the characters of Luke Skywalker and Jaime Lannister, due to both being sword-fighters who lose their hands in duels, while being knights sworn to celibacy, and also due to their incestuous relationships to their respective sisters, Leia and Cersei (though Luke and Leia were unaware of being siblings, and the Lannisters have children). Both feature mothers who died at child-birth (A Game of Thrones was written before the release of Revenge of the Sith), and arguably evil fathers (though Luke and Leia weren't raised by him). Captain Phasma has also been compared as weaker than Briane of Tharth, due to both sharing the same actress. Many people were in both franchises.[37] Both franchises feature important fights on throne rooms, with Emperor Palpatine's throne being compared to the Iron Throne, though Martin's works are far more violent.[38]
Lucas has specifically cited the fact that he became acquainted with the term jidaigeki ("period drama", the Japanese genre of samurai films) while in Japan, and it is widely assumed that he took inspiration for the term
Jedi from this.[40][41][42]
The costume for Darth Vader was visually inspired by the character "The Lightning" in the
Republic PicturesserialThe Fighting Devil Dogs. The Lightning also had an army of white-armored stormtroopers and flew through the sky in a large triangular airship (the "flying wing").
Darth Vader's need to wear his helmet to breathe recalls the oxygen helmets of the underground-dwelling Muranians in the 1935 Mascot serial The Phantom Empire, which are required by the caped Thunder Riders to be able to breathe on the surface.
The Phantom Menace features a pod racing action sequence. This entire sequence is inspired by the famous chariot race of Ben Hur. The climactic moment when Sebulba's Pod attaches itself to Anakin's Pod mimics, almost shot for shot, the climactic moment of the scene in Ben Hur when Messala accidentally locks wheels with Ben Hur. Lines, scenes and themes from Ben-Hur had already previously influenced the Star Wars films. The conflict between the Rebel Alliance and the Empire is comparable to the earlier film's depiction of the historical Roman-Jewish conflict of the time, with an ascendant Roman Empire, represented by Messala, threatening to wipe out the Jewish rebels and send them extinct. The same Chariot sequence also inspired parts of the Endor speeder chase in Return of the Jedi, which also includes a sequence where two speeders accidentally interlock. The film's famous early line "The Emperor is displeased, he wishes Judea be made into a more obedient province!" significantly influenced dialogue in all Original Trilogy Star Wars films, with the first four words, in particular, is frequently directly quoted in relation to Star Wars Emperor Palpatine character.
Lucas has also cited
John Ford's The Searchers and
David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia as references for the style—if not the story—used in the films. A more direct homage to Lawrence of Arabia occurs in Attack of the Clones, as Padme and Anakin talk while walking around the Theed palace on
Naboo. It was filmed at the Plaza de España in
Seville, Spain, which in Lawrence of Arabia was the site of the British Army headquarters in Cairo, and was shot in an exact manner as the scene in Lawrence of Arabia where Allenby (
Jack Hawkins) and Dryden (
Claude Rains) discuss whether to give artillery to Lawrence's Arab troops. In the same film, Padme and Anakin also retreat to an estate called Varykino – the name of the Gromeko family estate in Doctor Zhivago. (Some[who?] also have considered
Tom Courtenay's Pasha/Strelnikov character from Zhivago as an inspiration for Anakin/Darth Vader, but the similarities are likely coincidental.) Similarly, the chase sequence with Zam Wesell on Coruscant likely references Blade Runner; Lucas based many of the Coruscant cityscapes on Los Angeles in 2019. A reference to The Searchers occurs in Star Wars, when Luke discovers the burning moisture farm, while the Tusken Raiders sequence in Attack of the Clones recalls the climax of The Searchers. Han's showdown with Greedo in Star Wars resembles a scene in another John Ford movie, Cheyenne Autumn.
Lucas is also a fan of
Sergio Leone's film Once Upon a Time in the West, and according to Leone's biographer,
Christopher Frayling, he listened to the score from Leone's film while editing The Empire Strikes Back. Many[who?] have considered Vader's first appearance in A New Hope as being an "homage" to the introduction of
Henry Fonda's villainous Frank in the Leone film.
The death scene of
Yoda in Return of the Jedi is taken almost shot-for-shot from the death scene of the similarly mystical High Lama in
Frank Capra's Lost Horizon (Yoda and the High Lama also both share a diminutive form and odd cadence of speech).
The attack on the
Death Star in the climax of the film A New Hope is similar in many respects to the strategy of
Operation Chastise from the 1954 British film, The Dam Busters. Rebel pilots have to fly through a trench while evading enemy fire and drop a single special weapon at a precise distance from the target to destroy the entire base with a single explosion; if one run fails another run must be made by a different pilot. Some scenes from the A New Hope climax are similar to those in The Dam Busters and some of the dialogue is nearly identical in the two films. These scenes are also heavily influenced by the action scenes from the fictional wartime film 633 Squadron. That film's finale shows the squadron's planes flying down a deep
fjord while being fired at along the way by anti-aircraft guns lining its sides. George Lucas has stated in interviews that this sequence inspired the 'trench run' sequence in Star Wars.[citation needed]
Francis Ford Coppola – Lucas based the friendship between Luke Skywalker and Han Solo on his own friendship with Francis Ford Coppola. In Revenge of the Sith, during Anakin's massacre on Mustafar, the slaughter of the Separatist Council and the declaration of the Galactic Empire are reminiscent of the montage of massacres during the christening scene of The Godfather, a film directed by Coppola. They are similar in that the christening of one (the baby and the Empire) with the death of a group of others (the other dons and the Separatists).[43] Post-Lucas director Rian Johnson inspired one of the final shots of The Last Jedi where the Millennium Falcon door closes, on the final scene of The Godfather where a door closes on Michael Carleone.[44] While, Lucas wanted the sequel trilogy Luke Skywalker inspired on the cynic Colonel Kurtz from Coppolla's "Apocalypse Now".[45]
The
Maschinenmensch – the robot in
Fritz Lang's 1927 film Metropolis – inspired the look of C-3PO, although the Maschinenmensch is a
gynoid whereas C-3PO has masculine programming.
Ray Harryhausen used
stop motion animation to create a mechanical owl, Bubo, in Clash of the Titans (1981). Despite Bubo's similarities (Bubo is metallic and expresses by whistling and rotating its head) to the
droidR2-D2 of the 1977 film Star Wars, Harryhausen claimed Bubo was created before Star Wars was released.[46]
Lucas used the term the Force to "echo" its use by cinematographer
Roman Kroitor in 21-87 (1963), in which Kroitor says, "Many people feel that in the contemplation of nature and in communication with other living things, they become aware of some kind of force, or something, behind this apparent mask which we see in front of us, and they call it God".[47] Although Lucas had Kroitor's line in mind specifically, Lucas said the underlying sentiment is universal and that "similar phrases have been used extensively by many different people for the last 13,000 years".[48]
The Hidden Fortress (1958) – A New Hope features the exploits of
C-3PO and
R2-D2, whereas the plot of The Hidden Fortress is told from the point of view of two bickering peasants. The two peasants, Tahei and Matashichi, are first shown escaping a battle, while C-3PO and R2-D2 are first shown fleeing an attack in A New Hope. Additionally, both films feature a battle-tested General – Rokurota Makabe in The Hidden Fortress and
Obi-Wan Kenobi in A New Hope – who assist a rebellion led by a princess and engage in a duel with a former rival whom they fought years earlier. Lucas also features many horizontal
wipe scene transitions in Star Wars, a technique used thoroughly by Kurosawa in his films. Similarly, the Princess trades places with a slave girl in The Hidden Fortress, with the slave girl acting as a decoy for the real Princess. In The Phantom Menace,
Queen Amidala trades places with one of her handmaidens who acts as a decoy.
Yojimbo (1961) inspired the brawl scene in the Cantina. Its sequel Sanjuro (1962) inspired the hiding-under-the-floor trick.[49]
"A Fistful of Dollars" which is Sergio Leone's first film in Dollars trilogy, is an unofficial remake of the Kurosawa film "Yojimbo", that also inspired George Lucas. Clint Eastwood's cowboy character without a name, also inspired the post-Lucas created main character of The Mandalorian, and also the Lucas created character
Cad Bane from The Clone Wars animated series.[50] (Though the episode "
Hostage Crisis" that introduced
Cad Bane, has the character also inspired on
Hans Gruber, the villain of Die Hard, with its plot also being a loose remake of the Bruce Willis film).[51]
Dersu Uzala (1975), just two years before the first Star Wars movie, there are two scenes that bear a striking resemblance to scenes in Star Wars. The first is the Captain and Dersu looking out over the horizon, seeing both the setting sun and the rising moon at the same time. This is much like when Luke Skywalker stares out on the sky with binary suns in A New Hope. The other scene is when Dersu and the Captain are suddenly caught in a blizzard, and they have to quickly build a shelter to spend the night, to survive the cold. The Captain collapses from the cold and Dersu has to drag and stuff him into the shelter. This is similar to the scene in The Empire Strikes Back where Han Solo cuts a tauntaun open with Luke's
lightsaber and stuffs the unconscious Luke into it, when they get caught in a blizzard on the snow planet
Hoth. A similar moment using a horse, happens in The Revenant (2015 film), than won an Oscar to Leonardo DiCaprio for playing 1700s frontier man
Hugh Glass.
Rashomon (1950): On The Last Jedi (2017), from post-George Lucas director
Rian Johnson. The
Rashomon effect, is described on the part where Rey is told by Luke, a description of how he considered murdering his nephew Ben Solo in his sleep, due to feeling his inevitable fall to the dark side of The Force. Then Solo, who by that point had renamed himself as Kylo Ren, tells his perspective, which causes Luke to tell a third perspective of the event. All whom cause a reinterpretation of a similar even in Return of the Jedi.[52]
Seven Samurai also inspired an episode of The Clone Wars animated series, and the first Star Wars comic with an original plot, that wasn't adapted from the film. The Mandalorian released its "
Chapter 4: Sanctuary" has also been compared to Seven Samurai.[53]
George Lucas claims he became a fan of Star Trek when
the original series broadcast in the late 1960s which played an influence on the development of Star Wars in 1977.[clarification needed] Lucas claimed he also visited Star Trek conventions.[54] The filmmaker amazed
Clint Howard by, during an audition, immediately citing his role 15 years earlier as
Balok from "
The Corbomite Maneuver". Howard said that he wanted to yell "
Get a life" at the filmmaker.[55][56][57]
The original films' influence on the franchise after Disney buys Lucasfilm
Following the sale of Lucasfilm to
Disney, and the release of the 2015 film Star Wars: The Force Awakens, a Whatculture.com writer noticed the film bore many parallels and similar plot beats to A New Hope.[58]McGill University computer science professor Derek Ruths ran an algorithm that found that, while it was not a one to one translation (for instance, Rey and Kylo Ren did not mirror Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader), the script mirrored A New Hope a lot in the way that each film's characters were grouped.[59]
Ancient and medieval history play amongst the strongest and significant influences on Star Wars which reflects ancient Earth history in its settings, including
architectural, social and hierarchical structures (i.e. the existence of monarchies and empires) as well as story lines which reflect ancient and medieval history. The transformation of the
Old Republic into the
Galactic Empire parallels that of the
Roman Republic which transformed into the
Roman Empire in the same manner of conspiracy and manipulation. Lucas was quoted as saying: "I love history, so while the psychological basis of Star Wars is mythological, the political and social bases are historical".[61]
Author Nick Jamilla explains that unlike mainstream futuristic stories, with Star Wars, George Lucas ties in science fiction with ancient history, comparing the Jedi to the
Samurai and historical European swordsmanship. He also parallels the spiritual aspects of the Jedi to eastern
monks and philosophy.[62][63]
Star Wars reflects ancient history in its planetary settings. For example, the planet
Coruscant imitates
Ancient Rome as the capital of the Old Republic and later the Galactic Empire; whereas
Tatooine (referring to
Tataouine - a province south of Tunis in Tunisia, roughly where Lucas filmed for the planet) imitates the ancient
Middle East (specifically the
Arabian Peninsula) and
North Africa in ancient times as being barren desert and sparsely populated (which it still is today to a certain degree).[64] Coruscant and
Naboo are also two of many planets in the Star Wars galaxy which exhibit architecture inspired by those of
ancient Greece, Rome, and other ancient Mediterranean and southern/southeastern European societies.
In his book The Medieval Hero on Screen: Representations from Beowulf to Buffy, author Tom Henthorne argues that 1970s science fiction movies such as the Star Wars films and E.T. bring back neo-medieval themes at young boys with a masculine tone in his view. He argues the knighthood-type plots give a sense of encouragement to young boys and give girls the image of being their prizes or captives waiting to be rescued.[65]
The
Samurai warriors of
Japan are somewhat parallel to the concept of the Jedi as an elite warrior class specialized in combat and swordsmanship techniques charged with protecting their respective societies.[66]
The aesthetic of
Jedi uniforms is borrowed from the styles of clothing worn by
North African Tribesmen and various
Sufi brotherhoods. It has been argued by some that the name "Jedi" itself actually comes from the
Arabic "Al-Jeddi'" which means "master of the mystic-warrior way."[67]
In an interview with 'The Muslim Magazine,' Dhul-Nun Owen spoke about
George Lucas contacting members of the
Habibiyyah Sufi Order in Berkeley, CA in order to do research for 'Star Wars.' It should be noted, however, that there isn't a record of Lucas confirming this himself.[68]
Mahmoud Shelton of
Stanford University wrote an article titled "Star Wars: A Tale of Spiritual Chivalry” wherein he explores the connection between the Order of the Jedi and the Orders of
Futuwwa (Mediaeval Sufi Chivalry).[69][68] Shelton maintains that the Skywalker story may be specifically compared to the Ancient Egyptian myth of Osiris and his son Horus, and that the word "Jedi" is related to the
Djed through the imagery of the prequels.[70]
Modern and early modern history
The
stormtroopers from the movies share a name with the
Imperial Germanstormtroopers and the
Nazi GermanSturmabteilung (lit. Stormtrooper). Imperial officers' uniforms also resemble some
historical German Army uniforms and the political and security officers of the Empire resemble the black clad
SS down to the imitation silver death's head insignia on their officer's caps (although the uniforms technically had more basis with the German
Uhlans within the Prussian Empire[71]). World War II terms were used for names in Star Wars; examples include the planets Kessel (a term that refers to a group of
encircled forces) and Hoth (
Hermann Hoth was a German general who served on the snow-laden
Eastern Front).[61] Lucas himself has drawn parallels between Palpatine and his rise to power to historical dictators such as
Julius Caesar,
Napoleon Bonaparte, and
Adolf Hitler, saying the films exist as an examination of how democracies allow themselves to become dictatorships.[72] The space battles in A New Hope were based on filmed
World War I and
World War IIdogfights.[5]
Continuing the use of Nazi inspiration for the Empire,
J. J. Abrams, the director of The Force Awakens, has said that the First Order, an Imperial offshoot which serves as the main antagonist of the
sequel trilogy, is also inspired by another aspect of the Nazi regime. Abrams spoke of how several Nazis fled to
Argentina after the war and he claims that the concept for the First Order came from conversations between the scriptwriters about what would have happened if they had started working together again (
The Boys from Brazil).[73]
In a 2005 interview, George Lucas was asked the origins of the name "Darth Vader", and replied: "Darth is a variation of dark. And Vader is a variation of father. So it's basically Dark Father." (Rolling Stone, June 2, 2005). Vader is the
Dutch word for "father" (the Dutch word is instead pronounced "fah-der"), and the
German word for "father" (Vater) is similar. However, in the earliest scripts for Star Wars, the name "Darth Vader" was given to a human Imperial general with no apparent relationships.[74]
Commentators have noted the strong political analogies in the Star Wars universe to contemporary American politics. Major analogies include Lucas's opposition to the
Vietnam War being seen in the original trilogy.[75] Lucas even said in 2005 that Star Wars "was really about the Vietnam War, and that was the period where
Richard Nixon was trying to run for a [second] term, which got me to thinking historically about how do democracies get turned into dictatorships. Because the democracies aren't overthrown; they're given away."[76] This claim was likewise backed up by the 1973 draft for the first movie, then-called The Star Wars, where Lucas specifically mentioned that the theme involved an independent planet named Aquillae that was compared to North Vietnam, and that the Empire was "America 10 years from now",[77][78] and by
Walter Murch, who claimed Lucas, after his failure with Apocalypse Now, decided to do Star Wars as a way to channel the anti-war and pro-Vietcong ideology in a disguised form.[79]Ian McDiarmid, when recalling something Lucas told him during filming of Return of the Jedi, also implied that the Oval Office, and in particular, Nixon's presidency, played a role in the design of the Emperor's throne room.[80] Political themes in Rogue One have also been noted[further explanation needed].[81][82]
^Taylor, Chris (2015). How Star Wars Conquered the Universe: the past, present, and future of a multibillion dollar franchise. London: Head of Zeus.
ISBN978-1-78497-047-5.
OCLC951149431.
^Henthorne, Tom. Boys to Men: Medievalism and Masculinity in Star Wars and ET: The Extra-Terrestrial. The Medieval Hero on Screen: Representations from Beowulf to Buffy (2004): 73-90.
^Horton, Cole (October 15, 2014).
"From World War to Star Wars: Stormtroopers". StarWars.com. The exact cut of the uniforms was certainly familiar, but didn't rely precisely on the dress of the Second World War. The overall color palette and feel for the Empire was intended to be fascist, but earlier Prussian military uniforms inspired the actual cut of the uniforms designed by John Mollo. The tunic and pants worn by Imperial officers were based on the uniform of German Uhlans, a division of mounted lancers that predated Nazi Germany. This style of uniform was used through the end of World War I, but was not a hallmark of the Third Reich.
^"Star Wars: Attack of the Clones". TIME Magazine. April 21, 2002. Archived from
the original on June 5, 2002. Retrieved December 13, 2009. The people give their democracy to a dictator, whether it's
Julius Caesar or
Napoleon or
Adolf Hitler. Ultimately, the general population goes along with the idea ... That's the issue I've been exploring: how did the Republic turn into the Empire?
^Rinzler, J.W., The Making of Star Wars, page 7-8, 16-18.
^Taylor, Chris. How Star Wars Conquered the Universe. p. 87-88, 109-110, 125.
^Ondaatje, Michael (2005). The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film. Knopf. p. 70. Originally George Lucas was going to direct ('Apocalypse Now'), so it was a project that George and John [Milius] developed for [American] Zoetrope. That was back in 1969. Then, when Warner Brothers cancelled the funding for Zoetrope, the project was abandoned for a while. After the success of 'American Graffiti' in 1973, George wanted to revive it, but it was still too hot a topic, the [Vietnam] war was still on, and nobody wanted to finance something like that. So George considered his options: What did he really want to say in 'Apocalypse Now?' The message boiled down to the ability of a small group of people to defeat a gigantic power simply by the force of their convictions. And he decided, All right, if it's politically too hot as a contemporary subject, I'll put the essence of the story in outer space and make it happen in a galaxy long ago and far away. The rebel group were the North Vietnamese, and the Empire was the United States. And if you have 'the force,' no matter how small you are, you can defeat the overwhelmingly big power. 'Star Wars' is George's transubstantiated version of 'Apocalypse Now.'